Germ Warfare: How Clean Are You Really?

We touch things all the time covered with germs and bacteria.

We know to wash our hands after going to the bathroom or touching money, but there are less obvious culprits.

We decided to put some surfaces to the test to see just what we are touching.

We started our experiment with some help from Desert Regional Medical Center.

We met microbiologist John Frazier in the lab where he gave us supplies and instructions.

He taught us to start by dipping a swab in a sterile saline solution which will help pick up bacteria. Then, wipe it into the petri dish. Then label and date.

From there, we went on a swabbing frenzy, taking samples from 17 different surfaces.

Cell phones, ATM’s, restaurant menus, doors, toys, remotes, refrigerators and purses.

We brought the plates back to Desert Regional to incubate, and we returned 45 hours later.

We started with the ATM key pads.

When we took samples, the swabs got covered with dirt.

The petri dishes don’t look much better.

“What happens is people use the atm keyboards a lot, and so the oils from the fingers get collected on these and that’s a great place for bacteria to grow,” Frazier explains.

We aren’t able to see viruses on the plates, but they are what cause the common cold and flu.

“The viruses, they are there but they are undetected until someone gets sick,” Frazier tells us.

It’s important to note, however, just because a surface is covered with bacteria, it doesn’t mean it’s covered with viruses.

“The less clean something is, the more of a chance you’ll run into a virus but again, there’s hundreds of thousands of viruses too and only a few actually cause illness,” Frazier said.

Next, we turn to children’s toys.

We took samples from two sources: a soft doll and a hard plastic truck.

The samples from the soft doll showed a lot more bacteria growth, but Frazier tells us it’s nothing harmful or out of the ordinary.

In samples from two remotes we found similar results, staph and another bacteria called bacillus.

We swabbed two purses, and again: staph and bacillus.

But it might make you think twice about setting your purse down on your bed or kitchen table.

We also wanted to test cell phones, since most of us are permanently attached to them.

So, we put two of them to the test.

Once again staph, bacillus, and maybe even some fungus.

But, Fraizer tell us it’s all part of our normal flora, micro-organisms that live on our skin.

“Don’t be freaked out by this bacterial growth that you see,” Frazier warns. “It’s normal part of nature and it’s everywhere. There’s only a few things that actually cause a sickness and that’s usually in people who can’t fight off an infection.”

We did find one of the strains of staph, Staph Aureus, that can cause infection, on one of two samples we took from menus at local restaurants.

Your best defense against Staph Aureus is to wash your hands.

Perhaps our biggest surprise came after we swabbed three doors at our station.

We found a small amount of bacteria on the door handle going out of the women’s restroom.

But the sample we took from the door out of the men’s room showed absolutely no growth.

It was the only sample we took with no bacterial growth after the incubation.

Door three is a sample from the main lobby door at our station.

It is a high traffic area and, not surprisingly, had slightly more bacteria that the two bathroom doors.

We also tested the doors on two refrigerators, but both of those tested fairly clean.

“Bacteria are everywhere, viruses are everywhere,” Frazier explains. “And, the vast majority of these things are not disease producing, but it does point to possible cleanliness issues.”

Frazier says you shouldn’t worry too much..

He says the findings are pretty normal.

And, if you feel like disinfecting a few things after this story, he recommends wipes with 70% alcohol.